Tom Shone

The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan

The Nolan Variations

A Retrospective

Christopher Nolan

Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Reservoir Dogs by diving into the brilliant, twisted mind of Quentin Tarantino and discover the artistic process of an Oscar-winning legend. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1963, Quentin Tarantino spent many Saturday evenings during his childhood accompanying his mother to the movies, nourishing a love of film that was, over the course of his life, to become all-consuming. The script for his first movie took him four years to complete: My Best Friend’s Birthday, a seventy-minute film in which he both acted and directed. The script for his second film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), took him just under four weeks to complete. When it debuted, he was immediately hailed as one of the most exciting new directors in the industry. Known for his highly cinematic visual style, out-of-sequence storytelling, and grandiose violence, Tarantino’s films have provoked both praise and criticism over the course of his career. They’ve also won him a host of awards—including Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTA awards—usually for his original screenplays. His oeuvre includes the cult classic Pulp Fiction, bloody revenge saga Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and historical epics Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight . This stunning retrospective catalogs each of Quentin Tarantino’s movies in detail, from My Best Friend’s Birthday to The Hateful Eight. The book is a tribute to a unique directing and writing talent, celebrating an uncompromising, passionate director’s enthralling career at the heart of cult filmmaking.

Tarantino: A Retrospective

Taking an embarrassing job in New York that sharply contrasts with his ambitions, a London literary agent meets a legendary novelist at an AA meeting and begins enjoying success and popularity, a situation throughout which he hides the truth about not being an alcoholic.

In the rooms

Chronicles the life and work of the director known for such movies a "Goodfellas" and "Taxi Driver."

Martin Scorsese: A Retrospective

Celebrate more than three decades of filmmaking by diving into the brilliant, twisted mind of Quentin Tarantino, and discover the artistic process of an Oscar-winning legend. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1963, Quentin Tarantino spent many Saturday evenings during his childhood accompanying his mother to the movies, nourishing a love of film that was, over the course of his life, to become all-consuming. The script for his first movie took him four years to complete: My Best Friend’s Birthday (1987), a seventy-minute film in which he both acted and directed. The script for his second film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), took him just under four weeks to complete. When it debuted, he was immediately hailed as one of the most exciting new directors in the industry. Known for his highly cinematic visual style, out-of-sequence storytelling, and grandiose violence, Tarantino’s films have provoked both praise and criticism over the course of his career. They’ve also won him a host of awards—including Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTA awards—usually for his original screenplays. His oeuvre includes the cult classic Pulp Fiction, bloody revenge saga Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and historical epics Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood. Featuring an all-new chapter on the director’s latest award-winning film Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood, this stunning retrospective catalogs each of Quentin Tarantino’s movies in fascinating detail. The book is a tribute to a unique directing and writing talent, celebrating an uncompromising, passionate director’s enthralling career at the heart of cult filmmaking.

Revised and Expanded Edition

A history of the modern blockbuster traces the progression of big summer films from the mid-1970s to the present, discussing how such factors as large Hollywood budgets and technological advances contributed to the industry's rise, in a volume that includes discussions with such figures as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. 30,000 first printing.

How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer

Blockbuster

Martin Scorsese has long been revered as one of our greatest living directors; his career spans more than 50 years and includes some of the most celebrated American gangster films--from Mean Streets to Casino and, of course, Goodfellas. His latest foray into the genre is The Irishman, a majestic epic that covers bold, new ground. Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, the film examines organized crime in post-war America through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics. Featuring special on-set photography and studio portraits by Brigitte Lacombe, unit photography by Niko Tavernise and a text by author and film critic Tom Shone, this stunning monograph takes readers behind the scenes and examines the making of The Irishman in the context of Scorsese's expansive career. Through interviews with Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, and the rest of the film's cast and creative team, Shone situates The Irishman as a reminiscence of Scorsese's own life and times--an intimate and cutting meditation on loyalty, betrayal, and regret. The Irishman was released on November 27th, 2019, and is now available on Netflix.

The Making of the Movie

The Irishman

Woody Allen is a uniquely innovative performer, writer and director with nearly fifty movies to his credit, from cult slapstick films and romantic comedies to introspective character studies and crime thrillers. Classics such as Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Broadway Danny Rose and Hannah and Her Sisters still resonate, and more recently Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine have been notable successes. In this timely retrospective, Tom Shone reviews Woody Allen's entire career, providing incisive commentary on his films and shedding light on this uniquely self-deprecating filmmaker, with the help of comments contributed by Allen himself. Superbly illustrated with more than 250 key images, this is a fitting tribute to one of the masters of modern cinema, published to mark Woody Allen's eightieth birthday. 'I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.' Woody Allen

Woody Allen

Interprète, auteur et réalisateur hors pair, Woody Allen affiche près de cinquante films à son compteur - des comédies "slapstick" ou romantiques, des études de caractères, des thrillers... Ses grands films cultes, comme Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Broadway Danny Rose ou Hannah et ses soeurs demeurent intemporelles, et ses oeuvres plus récentes, comme Minuit à Paris ou Blue Jasmine, ont remporté un succès phénoménal. Né Allan Stewart Konigsberg le 1er décembre 1935, élevé à New York, il est encore adolescent lorsqu'il perce dans le show-business en écrivant des sketches pour la télévision. Devenu humoriste, il connaît une gloire précoce avec la sortie de trois albums regroupant ses spectacles sur scène. Il s'essaye pour la première fois à l'écriture scénaristique dans les années soixante avec Quoi de neuf, pussycat ? Mécontent du résultat final, il décide d'écrire et de réaliser son prochain film, Lily la tigresse, en 1966. De ses débuts de cinéaste jusqu'à son tout dernier opus, Irrational Man, sa productivité s'avère prodigieuse : depuis le début des années soixante-dix, il réalise plus ou moins un film par an. Connu pour son indifférence face aux récompenses, il a toujours refusé de venir chercher ses Oscars en personne, lui qui a pourtant remporté de nombreux prix de mise en scène et de scénario, dont quatre Oscars, neuf Baftas, deux Golden Globes et, en 2014, le prestigieux prix Cecil B DeMille pour sa contribution au Septième Art. Dans cette rétrospective, Tom Shone détaille l'ensemble de la carrière de Woody Allen. Ses commentaires percutants s'ajoutent aux nombreuses citations d'Allen, où se retrouvent l'humour et l'autodérision du cinéaste et son regard incisif sur sa vie et son époque. Richement illustré de plus de 250 photographies, cet ouvrage est un bel hommage à l'un des grands maîtres du cinéma moderne, publié à l'occasion des 80 ans de Woody Allen.

Rétrospective

Woody Allen: A Retrospective is the first complete, film-by-film overview of Woody Allen's entire career, up to and including the 2015 release of Irrational Man. In this illustrated biography, renowned movie critic Tom Shone traces Allen's entire professional life as an entertainer and director, weaving in archival and original interviews, as well as more than 250 curated photographs, movie stills, and posters. From slapstick films to romantic comedies to introspective character studies and crime thrillers, Allen's output has always been prodigious; with nearly 50 movies to his credit, he's made more or less a film a year since the early 1970s. This fitting tribute to one of the masters of modern cinema covers all of those films, including contemporary classics such as Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Midnight in Paris, with wit and insight. This is the definitive illustrated monograph on one of the major writer-directors of modern cinema, celebrating Allen's fifty-year career and published to mark Woody Allen's eightieth birthday. With the help of comments contributed by Allen himself, Shone's well-informed commentary makes this book an essential read for Woody Allen fans and film aficionados. "I don't want to acheive immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." --Woody Allen

Woody Allen: A Retrospective

It's a typical summer Friday night and the smell of popcorn is in the air. Throngs of fans jam into air-conditioned multiplexes to escape for two hours in the dark, blissfully lost in Hollywood's latest glittery confection complete with megawatt celebrities, awesome special effects, and enormous marketing budgets. The world is in love with the blockbuster movie, and these cinematic behemoths have risen to dominate the film industry, breaking box office records every weekend. With the passion and wit of a true movie buff and the insight of an internationally renowned critic, Tom Shone is the first to make sense of this phenomenon by taking readers through the decades that have shaped the modern blockbuster and forever transformed the face of Hollywood. The moment the shark fin broke the water in 1975, a new monster was born. Fast, visceral, and devouring all in its path, the blockbuster had arrived. In just a few weeks Jaws earned more than $100 million in ticket sales, an unprecedented feat that heralded a new era in film. Soon, blockbuster auteurs such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and James Cameron would revive the flagging fortunes of the studios and lure audiences back into theaters with the promise of thrills, plenty of action, and an escape from art house pretension. But somewhere along the line, the beast they awakened took on a life of its own, and by the 1990s production budgets had escalated as quickly as profits. Hollywood entered a topsy-turvy world ruled by marketing and merchandising mavens, in which flops like Godzilla made money and hits had to break records just to break even. The blockbuster changed from a major event that took place a few times a year into something that audiences have come to expect weekly, piling into the backs of one another in an annual demolition derby that has left even Hollywood aghast. Tom Shone has interviewed all the key participants -- from cinematic visionaries like Spielberg and Lucas and the executives who greenlight these spectacles down to the effects wizards who detonated the Death Star and blew up the White House -- in order to reveal the ways in which blockbusters have transformed how Hollywood makes movies and how we watch them. As entertaining as the films it chronicles, Blockbuster is a must-read for any fan who delights in the magic of the movies.

Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino est l'un des cinéastes les plus influents et les plus originaux du cinéma contemporain. Presque tous ses films sont très vite devenus cultes. Tom Shone analyse chacune de ses réalisations, de Reservoir Dogs aux Huit Salopards, mais aussi ses années de jeunesse, sa carrière d'acteur et les scénarios très marquants qu'il a écrits. Illustré de plus de deux cents images de ses films et de photos de tournages, cette rétrospective est un hommage au talent exceptionnel de ce grand auteur.

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential and distinctive filmmakers at work in the world today. His films are so admired that nearly every one he makes becomes an instant cult classic. Here, Tom Shone presents in-depth commentaries on each of the ten films Tarantino has directed, from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as well as looking at his early life, acting career, and his indisputable talent for scriptwriting. Illustrated with more than two hundred film stills and behind-the-scenes images, Tarantino: A Retrospective is a tribute to the great auteur's unique talent.

Tom Shone

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